CHAPTER II 
RICHMOND LODGE AND GARDENS 
The old historic palace of Richmond has nothing to do with this 
story. It stood on the banks of the Thames on a spot a little dis- 
R'chmond * ance above the present railway bridge at Richmond. 
Old Palace ^P *° the reign of Henry VII. the town was known as 
Sheen, and Sheen had been a place of Royal residence 
since the reign of Edward I. When Henry VII. built his new palace 
on the site of an older one destroyed by fire, he changed the name 
of Sheen to Richmond — his own title, prior to the Battle of Bosworth, 
taken from Richmond in Yorkshire. Richmond Palace continued to be 
a place of residence for Royalty until the time of Charles II., although 
it evidently declined in favour with successive sovereigns. Finally, it 
fell into a semi-ruinous state, and but few vestiges of it now remain. 
The Richmond Lodge — also called “ Ormonde Lodge ” and occa- 
sionally “ Richmond Palace ” — a portion of whose grounds now 
form the western part of Kew Gardens, did not come 
into Royal occupation until the reign of the first George, 
probably about 1721. The house — or more properly a 
house that stood on the same site — had even then, however, a certain 
history. It was to this house that Cardinal Wolsey retired after 
his fall from power in 1530. For nearly two centuries after that it 
was occupied by Royal servants and private gentlemen, until in 1707 
Queen Anne gave a lease of it to the Duke of Ormonde. The Duke 
pulled down the house that had sheltered Wolsey and erected a new 
one on the site. During the critical times that followed the death 
of Queen Anne, he did not manage his political affairs with the 
dexterity shown by so many of his contemporaries. He was 
impeached in 1715, and his estates became forfeit. Some six years 
later, however, the lease of the Richmond property was restored 
to the Duke of Ormonde’s brother, the Earl of Arran, and by him 
was disposed of to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II. 
4 
Ormonde 
Lodge. 
